March 2010 Archives

 In January 2010, Francis Gurry, the Director General of World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), visited Vietnam and met with Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet.  WIPO is one of 16 specialized agencies of the United Nations and was set up in 1967 to promote the protection of intellectual property (IP) throughout the world.  During his visit in Vietnam, Francis pledged WIPO's continuing support to help Vietnam develop its IP capacity to innovate and achieve sustainable economic growth.  During the meeting, President Nguyen also reiterated Vietnam's commitment to protecting IP rights and establishing sustainable IP system that would allow Vietnam to shift away from an agricultural-based economy and to become a knowledge-based economy.

Gurry's unequivocal promise to support and strengthen Vietnam's national IP system is a welcoming sign to a country that has been plagued by a lack of human resources and funding to hold education programs on IP.  Although Vietnam has become the 150^th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 11, 2007 and numerous economic legislations have since been introduced by the Vietnamese legislative body to match the WTO standard in IP protection and innovation, high-tech utilization in Vietnam remains very low at 2%, while other Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have flourished with a utilization rate of 30%, 51%, and 73%, respectively (see Tran Ngoc Hien, Social Changes in Vietnam Under Impacts of WTO Accession, Social Science Information Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 4 (2007). Appendix B.).

Law universities in Vietnam also are limited in terms of providing IP education and research opportunities.  It is reported that most university researchers and administrators lack legal capacity in understanding the basic IP issues.  See Gregory D. Graff, Echoes of Bayh-Dole? A Survey of IP and Technology Transfer Policies in Emerging and Developing Economies, Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation, a handbook of best practices (2007), vol. 1, p. 187.  While the general public knows that Vietnam's National Assembly has enacted IP Law No. 50/2005, which provides key provisions of Vietnam's Patent Law, most do not understand the legal implication of the new law.  Coupled with a lack of legal scholars and professionals to teach IP and the limited availability of legal education to those who possess an undergraduate law degree, there is a critical need for human resources in the field of IP, such as university scholars and professional IP lawyers, to promote the advancement and pursue the legal enforcement of IP rights in Vietnam.

Gurry's Vietnam visit will undoubtedly serve as an unwavering support and important incentive to a country that has been thirsty for international assistance in IP.  Although the idea of protecting IP is not new to Vietnam, as it enacted the Civil Code in 1995, the first legislation introduced that pertains to IP protection, technology has continued to change globally on a lightning pace and the onset of the digital age has resulted in a whole new set of IP-related issues that require a well-managed national IP system in order to ensure that these new issues do not hamper and slow the country's economic growth.

Many individuals do have their preconceived concepts about Poland. However, Poland is the only country within the European Union (EU) to have a economic growth of 1.2% during 2009. Gross Domestic Prodcut (GDP) is the basic measure of a country's overall economic output and Poland's GDP per head rose from 50% to 56% of the EU average. This is a record jump for Poland and actually making Poland Europe's ninth biggest economy.

Poland has been putting a lot of effort in improving relations with all its neighbors and even has a favourable security deal from the United States under President Barack Obama. Such favorable numbers and results are introducing foreign investors in Poland.

Clearly Poland is moving away from a economy in transistion. However, Poland is still not yet the knowledge-based economy. Regarding intellectual property (IP) rights, Poland still has not clear regulation at universities in Poland. Many Polish scientists are still focusing largely on publishing their discovery and findings to obtain further grants. This mostly likely refrains them from patenting their innovations. Also many universities still retain IP rights to all research conducted. This kind of policy has discouraged scientists from starting own start-ups and spin-offs.

That is slowly changing. In 2008 Poland adopted EU's Innovative Economy Operational Programme; using funds to focus on research and development of novel technologies and infrastrustures. Secondly the Poland Patent Office has been carrying out training sessions, promotion stands during fairs and exhibitions on patent information and industrial property protection. This is all a huge step in the right direction which will further the economic growth of Poland.